To admire on principle is the only way to imitate without loss of originality.

Painting is the intermediate somewhat between a thought and a thing.

I must lay down the law as I understand it, and as I read it in books of authority.

A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.

A spring of love gush'd from my heart, And I bless'd them unaware.

Happiness can be built only on virtue, and must of necessity have truth for its foundation.

General principles... are to the facts as the root and sap of a tree to its leaves.